Sharpening its aggressive stance against the ruling Trinamool Congress party in West Bengal, a five-member central team, which visited several villages of Sandeshkhali in North 24-Parganas that witnessed violent clashes between BJP and TMC on May 26, said “the government in Bengal is sponsoring anarchy in the state” and that the BJP would seek “central intervention” to control their “act of terror”.

The team’s visit to the area, where more than 20 people, including supporters and workers of the BJP, were attacked in firing allegedly by TMC workers, was followed by a visit to the injured at the city’s government hospital and a meeting with Chief Secretary Sanjay Mitra.

Buoyed by its performance in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections, in which the BJP increased its vote share from 6 per cent to 18 per cent, the team said they will seek intervention of the Prime Minister, Home Minister as well as the SC/ST Commission if the state government did not take action in 24 hours.

Siddharth Nath Singh said, “We will not allow West Bengal to become Waste Bengal. We will fight. If no action is taken in 24 hours, we will send the SC/ ST Commission and invoke the related law. The attackers used countrymade weapons. They did not try to kill them, they wanted them to be invalid. Each victim has several pellets in his body. It is unlikely they would be able to walk.”

According to Naqvi, the law and order situation in the state was worse than what it was under the Left Front rule. “It was not an act of violence, it was an act of terror. The women and minors were not spared either. This is the worst kind of post-election violence. After the results were declared, no other state witnessed the kind of violence that happened in Bengal,” added Naqvi.

Sending out an ultimatum to the government, the BJP leader said: “We are giving 24 hours to arrest the perpetrators, failing which we will seek the Centre’s intervention.”

Lekhi said the delegation will submit a report to party president and Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh. “We will submit the report to the party president. We will also seek the intervention of the Prime Minister, Home Minister as well as the SC/ST Commission,” said Lekhi.

“Even today one of our workers was murdered in Ketugram in Burdwan. The attacks on our people are taking place across Bengal continued…